


Fire and Ice

by orphan_account



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Gen, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-08
Updated: 2014-07-08
Packaged: 2018-02-08 01:23:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1921359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nations cannot die by suicide - but that doesn't stop them from trying. A kink meme de-anon.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fire and Ice

**Author's Note:**

> [Original kink meme request](http://hetalia-kink.dreamwidth.org/81939.html?thread=504151571#cmt504151571)

It was cold day in spring when he jumped. Though shivering, he hardly noticed. Cold air, cold water, cold body – no difference.

He hadn’t chosen the path less traveled, but never traveled. Even he, who had believed he knew every square meter of his land, had come across this place by accident when he had been following something only he could see.

Waves crashed against steep cliffs. He looked down.

His people held many myths of creatures of the oceans, the seas, the lakes. Lorelei lured men to their deaths. The shapeshifting _nøkken_ drew mortals from boats with his violin. Man must defeat the draug, the spirit of a human lost at sea, to escape its fate. The nix, portrayed as devils, would bait men into the water to drown. Sea-whips were invisible and humans never fared well against things they couldn’t see.

Even other civilizations warned of sea monsters, creatures, and beasts. He heard about the Hydra of Lerna from the nation where the legends were born. He also recalls the opposing _Skylla_ and _Kharybdis_ of the same culture. He wondered what it would be like to drown in a whirlpool like Odysseus’ men. Perhaps it would have been nice to sit down with that nation again and discuss how dangerous his mythologies tended to run.

Then again, he had the Kraken.

But he was neither human nor man nor mortal.

Several beings had followed him to the cliffs. Among the fae, he recognized Frydah, the faerie queen he had known since he was small. He saw the wyvern he had befriended the last time he was in Great Britain; oddly enough, England had been quite eager to be rid of her. There was a variety of elves and dwarfs lounging across the rocks. The Hex with which he often practiced magic stood near the trees, keeping the nosy trolls at bay. Curiously, a few Norns had come, though they were usually attached to human life spans, something he didn’t have. His favorite Para was there as well.

And so, of course, was his closest companion, the friendly humanoid who had been with him since he was a child. Humanoid. _Human-like_. Like himself? _Am I human after all?_

He stepped closer to the edge, listening to the waves roar, colliding with jagged stone. He wondered how long his body would drift. He wondered how long it would be until they found him. Would he still be unconscious – _dead_? It would all depend on how much water filled his lungs, how hard his body hit the rocks.

He shuddered.

This wasn’t the first time.

The first time was at a beach. He had run out toward the horizon until his feet lost traction and the currents pulled him away. He had been found within the day, waking to the sight of four concerned nations. Thankfully, it had been Sweden who had discovered him and Sweden who hadn’t told the others until he had been safely tucked in his bed. He doesn’t know if he’ll ever be able to repay Sweden for telling them it was an accident even though he knew Sweden knew the act had been intentional. He wonders if anyone else will ever catch him.

_Do I want to be caught? Do I want to be stopped?_

Frydah sighed from her perch on his shoulder.

He wonders if he could explain it away if it wasn’t Sweden, but Denmark or Finland who found him. He remembers America talking about adrenaline junkies who jumped off cliffs for the hell of it. Could he use that? He could say he slipped while fishing. Would anyone believe that in a place surrounded by cliffs averaging seventy feet high? Denmark might. Maybe drowning wasn’t the right option. Fire, maybe? Could their kind actually freeze to death? Finland had shot himself once, by mistake. He recalls tossing a noose over the highest beam in his home. There it hung, swinging back and forth like a sinister pendulum until he cut it down a week later, right before going to the beach. He had to be careful, however; Sweden was likely to say something if he found him again.

He couldn’t fathom his brother being _the one_.

Frydah looked sad, but she wouldn’t stop him. He looked down at his hand, at the only piece of jewelry he still wore. He had already given his barrette to the _nisse_. He slipped off the crude silver ring, a gift forged by the former dwarf king when he had first become a nation. He gave it to the faerie queen for safekeeping; she clutched it protectively, like a child holding a hula hoop.

She left his shoulder. There was a burning in his chest. He felt alone.

He stepped toward the edge, disturbing loose rocks that bounced down the face of the cliff and into the depths of the cold, dark sea. He looked up to see the sunset, but turned away when he saw the violet of his brother’s eyes. He wondered if it was an omen.

The waves grew.

He thought about where the Kraken might be today. He remembers threatening to feed Denmark to it on more than one occasion. He might have made the same warning to Sweden once, too. Finland would have probably jumped in after him. His brother would just laugh. A chill shot through his entire body.

_What would happen if he found me?_

“Please, _Ísland_.”

He jumped.

It burned.

**_Fin_**

**Author's Note:**

> All of the Norse, Greek, and English mythology was taken from a variety of sources. When you read multiple versions of the same myth, they’re never entirely the same so everything varies.


End file.
